The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Alumni have committed 50,000 Ghana Cedis to the start of an arboretum in Mamfe Akuapem for scientific, medicinal and educational purposes.

The seven-acre project, research-driven, is to help attain the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 15, which is to “protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.”

This came to light during the launch of a tree planting exercise to set up the Arboretum as part of the 70th anniversary of KNUST by the Alumni Association, also known as “TEKNOKRAT” at the forecourt of the Mamfe Traditional Palace.

The entire project is under the tutelage of Osabarima Ansah Sasraku III, Mamfehene and Kyidomhene of the Akuapem Traditional Area, in partnership with the Forestry Commission.

Dr Kwaku Agbesi, Global President, KNUST Alumni Association, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said, their efforts were to complement the Government’s initiatives of protecting the environment and forests and promoting biodiversity.

“In working to support Government in achieving the SDGs, we need to partner government, Civil Society Organizations, academia and traditional leaders so that we can also as an Alumni do something to help our society,” he said.

Dr Agbesi said the Association would replicate the project in the middle and northern parts of the country.

Osabarima Ansah Sasraku III, an Alumni and a ‘TEKNOKRAT’ said: ” With global warming and flooding being experienced, this initiative could not have come at a better time.”

Osabarima Sasraku III said the arboretum would not only serve educational purposes but would have recreational centres to draw traffic for domestic tourism.

The Mamfehene and Prof Mrs Rita Akosua Dickson, Vice-Chancellor, KNUST, planted the first two trees a few metres from Mamfe roundabout.

Madam Priscilla Asomani, District Manager, Forest Services Division, Somanya, also told the Ghana News Agency that their role was to give technical support on the species of trees and their importance.

“The species of trees we have selected for planting are Terminalia ivorensis, also known in local parlance as (Emire); Khaya avorensis (Mahogany) and Terminalia superba (Ofram).
“Others are Tetrapleura tetraptera (prekese) and Ceiba pentandra (onyina),” she said.

An arboretum is a botanical collection composed exclusively or very largely of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arboreta are in botanical gardens as living collections of woody plants and are intended at least in part for scientific study.